A 45-year-old who was recently laid off begins questioning her values, sense of purpose, and who she really is. According to Erikson's model, what is the best interpretation?
AShe is experiencing a pathological regression — adults should not revisit adolescent conflicts
BShe is in the Generativity vs. Stagnation stage and cannot be experiencing an Identity conflict
CLife circumstances can reactivate earlier stage conflicts; she may be revisiting Identity vs. Role Confusion alongside Generativity concerns
DShe must have failed to resolve Trust vs. Mistrust in infancy, which is now surfacing
A key feature of Erikson's model is that stages are not permanently closed — earlier conflicts can be reactivated by significant life changes. A major career disruption can destabilize a person's sense of who they are (the Identity question) even in midlife, alongside the central Generativity vs. Stagnation conflict of that period. Options A and B treat the stages as rigidly sequential locks; option D leaps too far back without justification. Erikson's model is more like overlapping narrative themes than a ladder.
Question 2 Multiple Choice
A child who successfully resolves the Industry vs. Inferiority conflict gains which ego strength, and what does it represent?
AFidelity — a stable sense of values and commitments
BCompetence — a sense that one can master the skills and tools valued by one's society
CWill — the capacity to exercise self-control while maintaining freedom of expression
DHope — the belief that one's desires can be attained despite setbacks
Erikson associated a specific ego strength (virtue) with successful resolution of each stage. Industry vs. Inferiority (school age) produces Competence — the felt ability to produce things and meet the standards of the social world. Fidelity belongs to Identity vs. Role Confusion (adolescence). Will belongs to Autonomy vs. Shame/Doubt (toddlerhood). Hope belongs to Trust vs. Mistrust (infancy). Knowing the virtue helps clarify what is at stake in each developmental challenge.
Question 3 True / False
In Erikson's theory, a 'crisis' means the person is experiencing a psychological breakdown or trauma.
TTrue
FFalse
Answer: False
This is one of the most common misconceptions about Erikson's terminology. A 'crisis' in Erikson's framework means a developmental turning point — a period of increased vulnerability and heightened potential, not a catastrophe. Each crisis is a normal, expected challenge that arises from the interaction of biological maturation and social demands. The person either builds a new ego strength through successful resolution or carries forward a vulnerability. The term is closer to 'critical period' in developmental biology than to its everyday usage.
Question 4 True / False
Erikson's model extended Freud's developmental theory by proposing that psychological development continues throughout adulthood and old age.
TTrue
FFalse
Answer: True
Freud's psychosexual stages ended at adolescence (with the genital stage), implying that the fundamental personality structure was set by early adulthood. Erikson explicitly extended the developmental framework through three adult stages: Intimacy vs. Isolation (young adulthood), Generativity vs. Stagnation (middle adulthood), and Integrity vs. Despair (late adulthood). This lifespan perspective was a major departure from Freudian orthodoxy and made Erikson's model foundational for adult developmental psychology and gerontology.
Question 5 Short Answer
What is the relationship between Erikson's stage of Trust vs. Mistrust and attachment theory, and why does it matter for later development?
Think about your answer, then reveal below.
Model answer: Trust vs. Mistrust maps directly onto the attachment relationship: securely attached infants who receive reliable, responsive caregiving develop a basic trust that the world is predictable and others can be relied upon — the ego strength Erikson called 'hope.' Insecure or neglectful caregiving produces mistrust, a baseline wariness. This foundational trust or mistrust becomes the psychological soil for every subsequent stage: a child who distrusts the world enters the Autonomy and Initiative stages with a deficit, while one who trusts can invest energy in exploration and self-expression.
Erikson saw attachment security as the raw material for the first ego strength. The connection matters because developmental theory often treats Freud, Erikson, and Bowlby as separate frameworks, but they converge on infancy as the foundational period. For Erikson, the quality of early caregiving is not merely one input among many — it establishes the baseline orientation toward self and world that colors all subsequent development.